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The worst pitcher contracts in history

Posted by
Andy

With the recent record posting fee paid by the Rangers for the right to negotiate with Yu Darvish, my mind keeps turning to Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kei Igawa, two other Japanese players to have been posted to Major League Baseball who haven't performed up to expectations.

In fact, both of Darvish's predecessors have among the worst contracts in history.

Originally researched by Neil Paine and myself in June 2011, here are the worst contracts we found at that time, going by dollar per inning pitched:

& Contract was terminated in December 2004 with $10 million in 2005 and a
$9 million buyout of a $12.5 million team option for 2006 remaining

Interestingly, Colon was also one of the best bargains, just this past season when he threw 164.1 innings and got paid just $900,000. That's just $5,477 per inning. You won't find many veterans cheaper than that these days. (Before players reach free agency, they are a lot cheaper. For example Ian Kennedy threw 222.0 innings in 2011 and got paid $423,000--just $1,905 per inning.)